City Boy Goes Country: K.I.S.S.

No, I'm not talking about Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, but rather the acronym - Keep It Simple Stupid. Why? Chicken Coops. They are either "crap" or "castle." There doesn't seem to be anything that is simple, but effective and nice to look at. First, let me explain a little bit about chicken coops. The coop is where the chickens essentially go in at night, and it is where they find their source of food and water. It is also where they lay their eggs. There are a number of parameters that go into chicken coop design. First, the size of the coop depends on how many chickens you have. Finding information on this is like asking a group of people who the best football team is. I cannot find any consistent information. The lowest value I have found is that you need 1 ft² of space per chicken from some internet chicken raising site. The highest value I've found is a whopping 9 ft² of space per chicken from some state extension site. So, for me, since I would like to have about 15 chickens, I either have to build a 15 ft² (I figured about 3 × 5) building or a 135 ft² (probably 9 × 15) monstrosity. However, most of the values I've found tend to be at the lower end of that spectrum, somewhere between 1-3 ft². So, I'm thinking I might stick with a value of about 3 ft² per chicken. That means, I would need about a 45 ft² coop at about 5 × 9 or 5 × 10 to be acceptable.

The second parameter that needs to be taken into consideration is the number of nesting boxes in the coop. The nesting box is exactly what it sounds like it is. It is the box in which a hen will lay her eggs. Typically these are mounted to a wall and are accessible from a lid or panel from the outside of the coop. That way, you can harvest the eggs without having to go into the coop without causing an uproar with the ladies.

Nesting boxes

Getting eggs from nesting boxes
(http://journeytosimple.wordpress.com/category/green-living/)

Luckily, my search on the number I need is turning out to be a little more consistent. A coop should have about 1 nesting box per every 1-2 chickens. So, I should probably plan on 7.5. However, I'm going to plan on either 9 or 10. If I go with 9, I will arrange them in a 3 × 3 pattern, or a 5 × 2 pattern if I decide to have 10 nesting boxes. The size of the nesting boxes is important too. Although I've only seen one website that says they should be at least 12 × 12 × 12, most of the pictures I've seen suggest that is probably a good assumption. The website also suggested that the size of the nesting box is commensurate with the size of the chicken. So, I will probably go with a 14 × 14 × 14 or a 15 × 15 × 15 size. I'll have to do some more research on this to nail down a good value.

The third parameter in a chicken coop is the presence of roosts. Roosts are simply an elevated area on which the chickens hang out and sleep. Most of the designs I've seen are a large dowel rod that traverses one end of the coop a few feed above the floor of the coop. I've seen some coops with 2-3 levels of, but the height at which the roosts should be is not very clear. However, the one thing all the websites agree on is that the roosts should be arranged in a diagonal pattern. That way the chickens on the roost above don't poop on the heads of the chickens on the roost below.

Chicken Roost
(http://buildachickencoopeasy.com/tag/chicken-roost/)

Lastly, chicken coops need a way to supply food, water, heat, and protection. Food and water come from feeding and watering dishes, available commercially, that are suspended from the ceiling of the coop so that the chickens don't walk or crap in the food and water supply. The heat is usually supplied by a bare light bulb that is hung at a specific height above the floor. Protection is provided by a door that can be secured. Although you might think of a hundred ways to secure the door of a chicken coop, the vast majority, if not all, that I've seen have a sliding door. In this design, the door is raised or lowered between two channels. The door is then attached to a rope and pulley that can be raised and lowered from the outside of the coop.

Feeders and Waterers
(http://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=31484)

Sliding Door
(http://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=31484)

So, what I have I resided to do, you ask. I'm definitely not going to buy mine, and the plans that I've found are either too elaborate or unclear. So, I guess I will be designing my own. I'm currently using Google SketchUp to design the coop. It's going to be a while, but I'll post a picture of it when it's finished.

If you want to get an idea of what kinds of chicken coops people have come up with, go to http://www.backyardchickens.com/coopdesigns.html to see what people have come up with. Otherwise, enjoy the pics of the ones I have found in my searches.